A recoil starter may have a ratchet mechanism configured to cause a rope reel to engage or disengage with a drive pulley, so that the rotation of the rope reel is transmitted to an engine upon pulling of the recoil rope but the rotation of the engine is not transmitted to the rope reel after the engine starts.
As such ratchet mechanism, a ratchet may be provided on the rope reel. In this case, since the rope reel is required to receive the load applied to the ratchet, the rope reel needs to have a sufficient rigidity. If the rigidity of the rope reel is not sufficient, the rope reel may be deformed, and thus, the ratchet may come off.
In view of above, for example, JP-2004-124825-A discloses the technique to provide a recoil starter with a sufficient strength without increasing the thickness of a rope reel. JP-2004-124825-A proposes to form a supporting hole for pivotably supporting a ratchet member as a completely circular hole so that the strength of the periphery of the supporting hole can be sufficiently secured, and to provide a receiving member for receiving an end portion of an arm unit of the ratchet member.
On the other hand, a high rigid material such as a glass reinforcing material (e.g., a glass-fiber reinforced resin) has been conventionally used in order to secure the strength of the rope reel. However, such high rigid material is generally expensive, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost. In other words, if it is possible to realize the sufficient strength in terms of a structure by even using a low rigid material, a material cost can be reduced.